If the Chicago Bears want to salvage what little hope they have left after the Jay Cutler trade, they need to acquire Mike Shanahan as their next head coach.

With all due respect to Lovie Smith, the Bears are reeling. The defense is old and slow. The offense looks horrendous every week. They have no wide receivers. They have a weak offensive line. Breakout rookie Matt Forte is going through his sophomore woes this year.

And, worst of all, the savior, the franchise, Jay Cutler has been close to the worst quarterback in the league this season. Just looking uncomfortable in the pocket, he seems to just sit back there and fire it near a receiver.

With the exception of tight end Greg Olsen, none of the Bears receivers run good routes. If you watch a game it is obvious Cutler is throwing into small windows every play. He doesn't have Brandon Marshall anymore and it's definitely apparent in his numbers. Twenty-five interceptions is outrageous for a quarterback with his talent.

He was beginning to get it in Denver before his tirade with Josh McDaniels. The Broncos may have made the deal of a decade when trading away Cutler in some respects. All Kyle Orton did in Chicago was win football games and they Bears fans and the organization didn't want him.

In addition to a reliable quarterback, the Broncos got two first round picks out of the deal. They selected Knowshon Moreno with the first one this past draft and he leads all NFL rookies in rushing yards.

With the Bears 5-9 thus far, the Broncos are looking at a top-10 pick in 2010. Bad news for Chicago because it limits what they can do to get better on offense. Even if they make two good first-day draft picks next year it will not solve their issues. There just are too many. They need wide receivers, offensive lineman, and just about everything on defense. Too many wholes to fill and not enough players.

Bringing Mike Shanahan into Chicago would be the dream scenario for Bears fans. With Shanahan being an Oak Park native, you know that he knows how much the Bears mean to the Windy City. He would be reunited with Jay Cutler and he would likely get back into his Pro-Bowl form.

The offense would be completely re-tooled via free agency. Shanahan loved to take chances on big name players in Denver. Pat Bowlen let him make any move he needed to. It would be interesting to see if the same would be allowed with the Bears.

Shanahan also brings a different strategy offensively each week. He will throw in new packages, different combinations, and anything he can to confuse opponents. It's tough to say whether Matt Forte would be the lone back he uses in his offense. At times he was consistently using one back.

He did have stars like Clinton Portis and Terrell Davis to work with. In other years he elected to go with the running back by committee approach. Most of that had to do with the Broncos bad luck with running back injuries.

One things for sure, the city of Chicago would be excited again. They were buzzing when Cutler strolled into town and most fans want him gone already. His cocky attitude and selfish demeanor doesn't really mix well with a bad football team. It can easily look like he is mad at receivers or blaming other players, but one thing is definitely true. Jay Cutler wants to win.

The problem for Chicago is he didn't do it in the SEC while playing for Vanderbilt and he also blew three leads in the AFC West in every season he was in Denver. The last two were three game leads with three to go. Maybe Shanahan won't make the difference either, maybe you're just stuck with a loser of a quarterback.